Woodworking blog entries tagged with 'idea'

After admiring the double and double-double dovetail joints that are capable with the Incra and other jigs, I started thinking, “Why not try this by hand?” So this box is my first experiment with handcut double dovetails. It took me some time to figure out the joinery process, but once I realized a few things about this type of joint, it seemed do-able. It was quite challenging but also a ton of fun. It also does take some degree of patience and precision…which I’m still working on.
In...

A few months ago I had read an article about ebonizing wood with steel wool and vinegar. Awhile back I tried this and absolutely nothing happened. I never even tried again. Ebonizing is a stain of sorts I guess. I also have heard there are several ways of doing this. The reason the original article caught my eye was because I sure as hell don’t have the money to buy Ebony (wood), and I am forever wanting or needing dark/black wood for my projects and I do not like to use paint, to the ...

I’m always a fan of recycling old wood and had recently finished rehabbing an old house. Sitting in a corner in one room was this old built-in “desk” that we removed (the shelves above came apart when we tried to remove it). I had an idea to convert the desk into something useful even though the built in was made from cheap pine and plywood. A workbench/tool center is what I came up with.
The main objective is to be able to roll this in and out of the garage so that I...

I’ve had a fancy for a thicknessing sander but a 10-20 inch model costs the equivalent of $1000 US over here and there’s no way I can justify that sort of spending so I looked into making one of my own. There’s no shortage of help to be had on the world-wide-web. The links I found useful include:
Dominic’s Woodshop
Kawika Ukulele Sander
Ray Lanham Woodcentral
Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery
Mother earth
The Woodshop
Art Herrick
Luthiers’ Friend
Nick’s drum S...

I’ve been weighing plywood floor as an option for the main floor of my home (and possibly the second floor and even attic when I finish it). And I was even more inspired by AllorNoThumbs project here: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/27373
The first problem I run into is that I have just over 1000 square foot per floor. I’m not sure I can handle ripping 35 pieces of plywood and running over 200 pieces through the tongue and groove process. Let’s not forget finishing 100...

Sheila (Landry) and I have been working to expand our business into new directions and in trying to appeal to a broader audience. One of our recent ideas was to make a simple carving from a scroll saw pattern in the hopes that we might interest some carvers or even people that may have an interest in carving, but not in scroll sawing.
All you need to do this is plywood, varnish, paint (dark brown or black would be best), a brush, Dremel with a few bits (or any similar rotary tool) and orbi...

This is the second part of my blog and in this blog I am going to talk about writing a business plan, and past mistake I have made in business.
Now this is the third shop I have started and if I have learned anything it is this, to be successful you need a plan! There it is. Now the first two times I did not write a business plan, I did not write a marketing plan. Really all I did was run into a guy who knew a guy who had a building to rent and the next thing I knew I had a shop and a whol...

At the very start, let me give all the credit in the world to Tedth66, whose project this is totally based on, and who has been graciously providing guidance as I build this. This is a modification of his design, adding a few details, and making it work for my shop.
I have a 2 car garage / workshop that is tremendously space challenged, so I need to be clever about every square inch. On top of that, I enjoy modifying designs and making them work custom for me. So when I saw Ted’s ...

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I’m a contract engineer so we have to move every few years. My shop is usually one side of a two car garage with makeshift shelves. I sometimes add some cheap cabinets but end up leaving them when we move. A good dust collection system is out of the questions so I usually do a lot of my work in the driveway. This means carry saw horses and plywood for makeshift benches and wheeling tools on rollers in and out. There are many trips back an...

I recently built a primitive cabinet with surface mounted hinges. The hinges were new and looked cheesy on the cabinet. I thought about painting the hinges black- but then decided to rust them instead. Rusting hinges and other metal parts for primitive furniture is EASY and QUICK. 2. Do not use a good pan. (Yes- I learned that the hard way today.) Soak your hinges etc in apple cider vinegar overnight. 3. The next day put equal parts liquid bleach and water in an OLD pan and put your part...